Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision to reject the expansion of Medicaid looks worse and worse. A new study by the Commonwealth Fund shows that Louisiana will lose out on $1.65 billion in federal dollars in 2022 alone. The federal government will be paying 90 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion that year. If the state agreed to the expansion, its share for the year would be $280 million.

The governor has said that Louisiana can't afford even that much. But the co-pay for Medicaid is a small fraction of the $2.2 billion Louisiana is projected to spend on incentives to attract private business in 2022, according the study.

And the additional Medicaid money would dwarf the $902 million the state is projected to get in federal transportation funds that year.

"No state that declines to expand the program is going to be fiscally better off" because of that decision, said Sherry Glied, one of the authors of the report.

By every measure, Louisiana would be worse off.

Federal taxes paid by Louisianians will help pay for the expansion even though uninsured residents here won't get to take advantage of the health coverage.

"Their tax dollars will be used to support a program for which nobody in their state will benefit," Ms. Glied said.

In addition, Louisiana -- and its people -- will lose out on growth in jobs in health care and other fields connected to the infusion of Medicaid money. An estimated 15,600 new jobs are predicted for Louisiana if the state accepts the money, according to a study by Families USA and the Louisiana Consumer Healthcare Coalition. That would have a major impact on the economy. For comparison, 5,000 people were employed at the former Avondale Shipyard in 2010. Now there are roughly 300.

Overall, Louisiana would get almost $16 billion in new health care dollars under the expansion. The first three years, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost.

The most important reason to expand Medicaid, of course, is that it is the best way to provide health care coverage to poor Louisianians who are uninsured.

They don't qualify for Medicaid now because of the way the program was designed and funded. They don't earn enough to be able to afford to buy insurance on the new health care exchanges and aren't eligible for the Affordable Care Act's insurance tax credits.

Gov. Jindal has been unmoved by those arguments. Perhaps he can be persuaded by the economic benefits.

Other conservative governors understand that the expansion is good for their states. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett -- all Republicans who've opposed the Affordable Care Act - have agreed to take the Medicaid money.

Gov. Jindal can still do the same. The expansion kicks into effect in January, and the state would lose out on some money if it doesn't opt in by Dec. 31. But there is still time to do the right thing.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana don't have health insurance through their jobs and can't afford to buy it. Providing them Medicaid coverage would give them better access to health care and lift a financial burden, the authors of the Commonwealth Fund study noted. It also would mean the state would have to spend less on the cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured.

Plus, there are all those billions of dollars the federal government would send our way.

There's really no sensible reason to turn it all down, and Gov. Jindal ought to see that.